In Mathew 23:9 Jesus says, “Call no man father.” This is regularly used as an objection to ecclesiastical titles and is a regular question that I get when people from evangelical and reformed backgrounds visit our churches. Just this morning the question came up in our Sunday School time and I thought it might be good to address it here in this format.
First some background.
It is not traditional in the reformed Church of England (That Anglican
Church) for the title father to be used of clergy. They are called vicar, parson, Reverend or
just simply Mr. and then their surname.
This is still the custom in the church of England today even in Anglo-catholic
parishes. The title Father for clergy is
a recent development in the American expression of Anglicanism (the protestant
Episcopal Church and the ACNA respectively).
However, it does have patristic roots (it comes from the early church)
and has been the practice in both the Roman Church and the churches of the
East.
This, however, does not conflict with what Jesus is
saying in Mathew 29:3 and there are other places in the bible where the
familial term “abba” father is applied in terms of ecclesiastical relationships. For example in 1 Timothy 1:2 St. Paul calls
St. Timothy his son in the faith. Then
of course there is the issue of what we do with our biological fathers. Does Jesus’ statement in Mathew 29:3 mean
that we can not call our biological fathers dad? I think not.
There is a wider context at play in Mathew 23:9. Jesus
says,
“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever
they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not
practice. They tie up heavy burdens,
hard to bear,[a] and lay them on people's
shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen
by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes
long, and they love the place
of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the
marketplaces and being called rabbi[b] by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for
you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.[c] And call no man your father
on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.”
The fundamental issue
here is that the Pharisees and scribes claimed to have spiritual authority over
the people of Israel while at they same time not practicing the spirituality that
they proclaimed to teach. Jesus then
confronts their hypocrisy. They are no
father to their people and thus should not be called that.
But there is a difference
in what Jesus is confronting here in this context and in what we do in our
sacramental traditions and at home. Does
Jesus mean that we should not call our earthly dads father? Of course not. For our fathers act in persona Christi, that
is to say, in the person of Christ. The
authority that our earthly fathers hold over us comes from our heavenly Father
and it is only meet and right to refer to them by that nomenclature.
Therefore, Jesus is not
telling us that the title father is off limits, but rather that it should be
rightly applied. In other words the
Pharisees and scribes demanded that they be called father but did not bear the legitimate
authority of a father to the people of God.
This has implications for all you dads out there. Your authority as husbands and fathers flows
out of God’s authority and it is for this reason that you should bear this
authority, not in hypocrisy, but diligently and with the seriousness that such
a title carries. Love your wives and
children in the same way the Christ loves the church. By doing thus the title of father is not worn
unworthily and carries with it the true authority of God.
But now we must come to
the church. Is it right to call your
priest father? Using the same principles
that we find in the context of this passage it would be right and meet so to do
if, and only if, that priest is rightly executing his office. That is to say, if your pastor is a hypocrite
and a scoundrel then he is no father to you and you should not apply the title
to him. But if he is a true pastor and
cares deeply for your soul as he is called to do then I would argue that it is
only right to view your pastor in this way and to refer to him this.
Let us look to the
reformer John Calvin for insight. He
says of this passage, in his commentary on Mathew,
“this name was not assumed by men for
themselves, but was given to them by God. And therefore it is not only lawful
to call men on earth fathers, but it would be wicked to deprive them of that
honor. Nor is there any importance in the distinction which some have brought
forward, that men, by whom children have been begotten, are fathers according
to the flesh, but that God alone is the Father of spirits. I readily
acknowledge that in this manner God is sometimes distinguished from men, as in Hebrews 12:5, but as Paul more than once calls himself a spiritual
father, (1
Corinthians 4:15; Philippians 2:22,) we must see how this agrees with the words of Christ. The
true meaning therefore is, that the honor of a father is falsely ascribed to
men, when it obscures the glory of God. Now this is done, whenever a mortal
man, viewed apart from God, is accounted a father, since all the degrees of
relationship depend on God alone through Christ, and are held together in such
a manner that, strictly speaking, God alone is the Father of all.”
Even the great reformer
himself saw that there was an element to pastoral leadership that was
fatherly. Note that he says that this
agrees with what Jesus says in Mathew 23:9. Why does this agree? Because it is when the honor of father
ascribed to men obscures the glory of God that is false, not when it is rightly
applied to someone who not only serves to point us to the glory of God, but
does so with true and spiritual motives for the health and well being of our
souls.
At the end of the day
it doesn’t really matter what you call me, as long as you call me that
respectfully, but no matter what you do decide to call me I will diligently strive
to be a good spiritual father to you all.
Well put.
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